Emma Gamboa Alvarado (October 17, 1901 – December 10, 1976), was a Costa Rican educator, recognized for her contributions to pedagogy and teaching.
Originally from a family with marked economic limitations, her mother requested a scholarship for her to start her secondary education at the recently founded Escuela Normal de Costa Rica.
][1] When Otilio Ulate Blanco assumed the presidency of the Republic in 1949, after the Civil War of 1948, Emma Gamboa was designated as the Vice-minister of Education (ad honorem) and, in 1953, took the place of the minister for three months.
In 1960, she contributed to the creation of the Escuela Nueva Laboratorio (primary laboratory), arranging an agreement between the University of Costa Rica and the Ministry of Public Education.
Nevertheless, her most disseminated works have been the textbooks widely used in Costa Rica, such as My home and my Village, Active Reading, Paco and Lola and The Little House on the Mountain.